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Yes, Candidate ME was scheduled to be on a break. But then Tuesday, September 12 rolled around, the mayor was voted out, other incumbents were defeated and the Charlotte City Council changed in significant ways.

Charlotte City Attorney Bob Hagemann says he never advised the mayor or city council to halt the practice of praying before council meetings. That's despite the mayor saying the decision was made on the "expert advice of our attorney."

In an interview with WFAE, Hagemann clarified that while he told city council that not praying before meetings is "100 percent constitutionally defensible," he did not expressly recommend that council cease the practice.

A long-running tradition was missing from the beginning of last night’s Charlotte City Council meeting: an opening prayer. As the meeting started, Mayor Jennifer Roberts said:

"We are not going to have an invocation this evening. We are going to change the way that we conduct it, on the expert advice of our attorney, with the concern over freedom of religion and separation of church and state and some other recent court rulings."

Last year, then 9-year-old Zianna Oliphant's speech before the city council on race relations and police shootings of African-American men went viral. Hear her thoughts one year later.

A city council meeting following the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott last year was out of control at times as a long list of residents spoke, calling for justice. And then there was this 9-year-old, Zianna Oliphant who grabbed everyone’s attention.

This week marks one year since Charlotte police fatally shot Keith Lamont Scott and protests erupted across the city. On today's Charlotte Talks, host Mike Collins and WFAE reporters talk to key people who found themselves at the center of those events last year. We hear their impressions of what happened, their reactions in the moment and with the distance of time.

CMPD Chief Kerr Putney speaks with a lot of bluntness these days. Take this example from a Charlotte Talks Public Conversation this summer. He addressed the lack of economic opportunity and other social challenges that disproportionately affect minority neighborhoods.

“I’m not going to say Kumbaya and let’s overcome everything. What I’m going to say is if you have financial means, support the work that needs to be done that changes these outcomes, and then you get out of the way and shut your mouth. And then let those of us who are willing to change outcomes, do so," Putney said at the July 12 event.